In his sci-fi masterpiece, "Dune", the late great Frank Herbert wrote that "Fear is the mind killer". It is also the great creativity killer. Our experience with the 48HFP has just ended, less than 15 hours after it began. One of our actresses and our film editor (who had all the equiptment for said editing) decided at 7:30 am this morning they couldn't work on the project any longer. It wasn't "professional". It would adversely affect their "careers". I believe what they meant was, "I don't work the way you do and I am scared to try it that way,so I quit." If it had just been the two of them in the project, it wouldn't rate even a blink. Quit before you finish and you never have to worry about failure. (or success for that matter). However, there were at least 6 others involved who now find themselves unable to compete. If they quit at the start, we might have persevered without them but they let us shoot 80% or so of the footage and then got scared because it wasn't what they were used to or shot the way they wanted or in a genre they liked.
The 48HFP is a fabulous opportunity, not just as a stepping stone in your career path but as an artist, a team player and as a human being. It takes you outside your comfort zone, forces you to work in new ways and forces you to create something wonderful (or awful) that you didn't realize you had in you. Don't try and, as I said, you will never face failure (at least public failure). But you won't find success, within your peers or yourself. Six of us did not fail tonight because we tried. We reached for a goal, perhaps even overstretched our capabilities. Two of us failed because we didn't even try. I thought seriously about naming names of those who tried to drag us down and stop us from reaching towards that goal but I won't. Instead the names I want to leave you with are those of us who tried, fabulously, spectacularly, horibbly tried. And though we wont have 4-7 minutes of footage to show for it, we still won. Heather Wizzel, David Lewis, Jordan, Angel and me, Chris Cook-Sussan. We are the 10 Doors Creative. Tonight one door was closed on us but that's why there are other doors. We will be back burnt but unbeaten. We will tell our stories, and we will be heard. As for the others. They will have success...but only the ones they want you to see, the ones carefully crafted to make it appear as if they have a talent that is in fact,Thunder and lightning and signifying...nothing. To my crew, my friends-new and old, Thank you. I look forward to working with you again...and we will, I know. This is Chris Cook-Sussan and the 10 Doors Creative saying goodnight for now and best of luck to all the other participants in the 2010 48HFP. We are rooting for every one of you
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As a parent, this experience repeated much about the basics.
ReplyDelete1) Decisions made when tired can be bad ones.
2) Anyone can start a project, anyone can fail - completion of the goal is what separates the triers from the doers.
3) It's never fun being a part of a group when you your feel professional skills are less than heard. That said, even those projects are best seen to completion. If only to remind you there is really no I in team & choose group projects well.
4) Finding good people to work with isn't easy, remembering who you are in the group dynamic -regardless of circumstance- is.
- to quote Cartman's problem finding quality people (on Chatroulette) "If you wanna find some quality friends, you gotta wade through all the dicks first".
5) The pressure to succeed in a single project should never be greater than the need to complete. Never assume great people are never part of bad projects - who IS Alan Smithee any way? (;-D)
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/alan_smithee/biography.php
All said, it was nice meeting everyone, I hope to work with you in the future for many reasons.